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Born leader to denounce the French in pointed article (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

needle

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'pointed article' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'born leader to denounce the french' is the wordplay.
'born' becomes 'nee' ('nee' is 'born' in French).
'leader to' says to take the initial letters (the letter which leads the word).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
The first letter of 'denounce' is 'd'.
'nee'+'d'+'le'='NEEDLE'

'in' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for needle that I've seen before include "Annoy - bodkin" , "Persistently annoy" , "Continually annoy" , "Pin" , "Pointer - irritate" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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